Friday, October 10, 2008

Gary Rapport leaves town

Former Ketchum official extradited to California to face burglary charge


By TERRY SMITH
Express Staff Writer

Gary Rapport

Gary Rapport, former executive director of the Ketchum Community Development Corp., has been extradited to California to face an 11-year-old felony burglary charge.

Rapport, who had been incarcerated in Blaine County Jail since his July 8 arrest in Ketchum on a California warrant, was removed from the facility on Oct. 2 by authorities from Orange County, Calif.

Rapport is charged in Orange County with stealing money from his former employer, Leisure World Market in Seal Beach. The arrest warrant was issued in 2002 when Rapport allegedly failed to appear for a court hearing on the charge.

Rapport headed the Community Development Corp. for about two months until his resignation on July 8 after corporation board members learned of the California criminal charge.

He was ordered extradited on July 17 following a hearing in Blaine County Magistrate Court.

Search for new director underway

The Ketchum Community Development Corp. is in the midst of a search for a new executive director with help from Prothman Co., a Seattle-based executive search firm that recently helped both Sun Valley and Ketchum fill their city administrator positions.

The application deadline is Friday, Oct. 17, though subsequent rounds of interviews could follow if the position is not filled during the initial hiring process.

"We've received a bunch of applications already," said Tom Unger, a member of the CDC board and chair of the Economic Development Team. "I've been really impressed by the number and quality of applicants, many of which are local."

While Unger lamented the circumstances that led to Rapport's departure, he, along with a number of other CDC members, said the previous director worked very enthusiastically and became involved in a number of projects in the short time he was with the group.

The position is advertised with an annual salary range of $60,000 to $80,000, along with medical benefits, and is the only paid position in the non-profit CDC, which is made up of over 60 volunteers.

While the executive director position has remained vacant since July, the organization has done anything but come to a standstill, as exemplified by the affordable rental housing project proposed at the beginning of the month by Michael Carpenter, head of the Affordable Housing Team.




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